


You don't have to bend until you break

by Lizicia



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Coda, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, I just needed them to talk more okay, Post-3x03, Snowells
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-19
Updated: 2016-10-19
Packaged: 2018-08-23 10:53:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,731
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8325031
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lizicia/pseuds/Lizicia
Summary: “I’m sorry.”“Oh? What for?”She won’t let him off the hook that easily, just because everything now seems to have worked out.He lets out a long sigh as if the words he wants to say are going to physically hurt him but she merely cocks an eyebrow and waits for him to fill the silence.Naturally, he caves.Coda for 3x03.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Very short but that is because I have too many feelings about this.

“I’m sorry.”

Caitlin swivels around in her chair to see Harry standing behind her, looking somewhat chagrined and appropriately apologetic.

“Oh? What for?”

She won’t let him off the hook that easily, just because everything now seems to have worked out.

He lets out a long sigh as if the words he wants to say are going to physically hurt him but she merely cocks an eyebrow and waits for him to fill the silence.

Naturally, he caves.

“I’m sorry for putting the responsibility for Jesse on you. I realized that I was rash to judge you when you had done nothing wrong. And…you were right.”

She smirks a bit. “Did Jesse put you up to this?”

He scoffs. “I would like to think I am capable of recognizing my own faults if need be.”

She smiles and nods. “Apology accepted. Did you guys manage to talk?”

“Yes. She loved the suit, by the way.”

Caitlin tries to wave it off with a nonchalance she isn’t quite feeling. “Well, it was mostly Cisco’s idea, you know he loves those suits. And it’s better for everyone’s safety – and your sanity – if her clothes do not burst into flames.”

“You’re probably right.”

They lapse into a contemplative silence and Caitlin feels, not for the first time, how she’s actually missed him being on this Earth. There’s a certain companionship he brings, even when he was making a big fuss about Jesse, and trying to manage everyone around him.

“So how’s it-“

“How much did-“

They start and stop at the same time, equally mirthful smiles on each of their faces as Caitlin gestures for him to go first.

“I’m assuming since you know about the alternate timelines that Barry also told you what had changed.”

“Yes.”

He rolls his eyes and shakes his head at that. “He really shouldn’t influence your futures like that. Things could go very wrong.”

“I was a pediatric ophthalmologist; I don’t think knowing that will have any great effect on my current life.”

He smiles and cocks his head at her; she can just sense that he’s trying to picture it. “Did you never have the desire to become a doctor?”

“Sure. And maybe I might have, at one point but then I started doing other research and when Dr. Wells-“

The name still brings her to an abrupt stop and she takes a moment to compose herself. She’s been very able to talk about him many times, mention him in conversations but Harry can tell that sometimes, those old memories still sneak up on her and catch her by surprise.

“Anyways, I chose differently. Hardly something I would consider now. What about you, what’s different for you?”

“Well, the speed lab, obviously. I don’t know if I should know the changes.”

Caitlin thinks back to all the major changes Barry mentioned, and decides to recap only the big things which might get Harry into trouble. “Well, at least those which might get you into awkward moments if you don’t know. Cisco’s brother is dead. The Wests had a huge falling out but that managed to fix itself. Oh, and there is an actual metahuman specialist at the CCPD, Julian.”

“Oh, that is all definitely new. And what about you?”

“What about me?”

“You didn’t mention anything different about yourself, compared to the previous timeline.”

She shrugs her shoulders rather unconvincingly. “I think nothing really changed about me. Still working at STAR Labs, still had pretty much the same kind of life story.”

“I do have to say, I don’t quite remember you being so…feisty.”

She gives him a long hard look at that. “I’ve never let you know just how wrong you are?”

“Not quite that forcefully.”

“Well, I think some things have changed for the better then.”

He smiles at that, remembering just how taken aback he was by her telling him off, even if it still nags at him a bit, the change he hadn’t been expecting. He will definitely not tell her that he might like her even better like this, too.

“Thank you for talking to Jesse, by the way. I know I apologized but I still want to thank you too, even if it didn’t end with her deciding to renounce her powers for good.”

Caitlin gives him a small smile. “She’s a smart girl, Harry. I wasn’t trying to convince her of anything, just talked to her. That’s all she really needed, even if she did realize that our talk was your doing. And just so you know – me not telling her to quit using her powers doesn’t mean that I’m against you.”

His given name also sounds new and exciting from her. He can remember a few times when she’s used it but there never seemed to be such fondness, such friendship behind it, and he wonders how they really got on in this altered timeline, full well knowing that she couldn’t really tell him the difference. He wonders if she’s so used to calling him Harry that to her, this is the normal.

“I know that, Sn- _Caitlin_.” He’s never given himself the freedom to use her first name but she doesn’t seem surprised to hear it, and it fills him with a certain kind of warmth.

He would thank Barry for that if he wasn’t still angry that he went and changed the timeline he was supposed to leave intact.

“In the end, I really did need to just help her become who she was meant to be. I will always want to protect her but being a meta is not going to change who she is, as long as she knows she can come to me.”

An odd look passes over Caitlin’s face and yes, he’s wondered about the real meaning behind her forceful lecture. She was angry at him, he knows that, on Jesse’s behalf but he couldn’t help but notice that there was something beneath it there. He doesn’t know how to ask about it, though.

Fortunately for him, he doesn’t have to.

“Harry. If I told you something, would you promise to keep it to yourself?”

She sounds a bit lost but determined and he nods before he even really considers it because what is there to consider when she’s asking him like that?

She stands up and comes closer to him, and he doesn’t like the fearful look in her eyes, the way her hand trembles when she stretches it towards him.

And then he sees ice crystals forming on her hand.

“Tell me, has this changed too?”

He stares at her hand, not daring to believe what he is seeing. Not because he’s never seen it before but precisely because he _has_.

“Oh.”

“I don’t know what to do about it. Is this me changing because of…because of your Earth? Or because of Flashpoint?”

At least he won’t have to shock her with revelations about Killer Frost.

“When did this start happening?”

“Right after you returned to your Earth. Which is also when Barry changed the timeline, so…”

He shakes his head, not taking his eyes off her hand which is still glittering, the ice crystals not melting away but staying at the same exact temperature.

“I don’t know, Caitlin. It could be that you’ve always had these powers but it took Barry’s changing of the timeline for them to manifest. It could be any number of things. For now, all I can say is that you appear to be a meta-human.”

“No.”

She whispers that and he raises his head to look at her but she’s turned her back before he can react.

“I don’t want to become Killer Frost.”

“That is not what I said.”

“But that’s what you’re thinking.”

He won’t deny that; he won’t lie to her because she doesn’t want to hear it. “Yes, I was thinking _about_ her but I would never think that you would want to harm anyone. That’s not the kind of person you are.”

She’s standing with her back to him, tension evident in her shoulders as she refuses to say another word, as if she could make him leave just with silence.

“Caitlin. Look at me.”

She still won’t, so he merely crosses around to stand in front of her; she looks away from him but doesn’t turn her back to him again so he counts that as a small victory.

“Caitlin. You showed me this because you knew I would not think the worst of you. Now you need to really trust that I wouldn’t.”

She takes a deep breath in and finally meets his gaze again. The sadness in her eyes pierces like a shard of glass would.

“What is it that you’re afraid of? You know that having powers doesn’t corrupt people; Barry and Cisco, hell, now Jesse, should be proof of that. Cisco’s doppelganger was working for Zoom but that doesn’t mean he can’t be in control of his powers.”

“I don’t know if I’m strong enough to do that. I don’t know anything about my powers, other than the destruction they can cause. I can kill people. I didn’t ask for this.”

“Remember what I told you when I left?”

He really hopes that thing remained constant.

“That I’m a good person.”

She says it reluctantly but can’t deny it, and he’s so very thankful that he had actually said that, instead of keeping with something more impersonal.

“Yes, and you are. That is how I know that your powers will not corrupt you. There is too much goodness inside of you, and I know that.”

“You really believe that?”

“I don’t lie to you.”

He doesn’t mean to be quite so forward but she doesn’t seem to mind; even though there is still a definite layer of mistiness over her eyes, she manages a tentative smile.

“Okay.”

And then, she completely blindsides him with a hug, casual and warm, like they’ve done this a hundred times before, though it’s really only ever been that one time when he thought he would never see her again and let his emotions get the best of him.

"Will you help me with this, Harry?"

She's still holding on to him, so tight that she whispers it into his ear and does she really have to ask?

"Whatever you need, Caitlin."

There's no doubt about that.


End file.
